Under heavy pressure from Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers to stop running deficits, the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) is searching for ways to cut about $84 million in spending.
But a public hearing Thursday showed little agreement about how such cuts should be made — and fears among service providers and advocates about how cuts will affect people with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy and mental retardation.
“We can’t take care of them with what you’re proposing,” said Carrell O’Grady, who runs a Tallahassee facility that reduced the number of people it serves from 11 to 4 recently and hasn’t given raises to its staff since 2004.
The Agency for Persons with Disabilities has long struggled with budget problems, which led one speaker to liken the hearing to the Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day,” with the same issues being discussed year after year.
Kingsley Ross, who ran the state’s developmental-disabilities programs from 1987 to 1992, said he is concerned Florida is returning to an era when it provided custodial care that focused only on protecting health and safety, instead of trying to improve the quality of life of disabled people.
“I want to basically sound an alarm that that cannot happen again,” said Ross, who now lobbies for Sunrise Community Inc., a Miami-based service provider.
But Bryan Vaughan, acting director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, said he doesn’t think the state will ever go back to the scenario that Ross described.
“Under my watch, we won’t get there,” Vaughan said. “Under my watch, that won’t happen.”
Lawmakers have pushed during the past few years to try to better control costs in APD’s main program for providing services, known as the home and community based services waiver.
But the issue took on a higher profile in March, when Scott ordered 15 percent rate cuts for service providers. Scott later backed away from the controversial cuts, but lawmakers had to come up with $166 million to fill a hole in the current year’s APD budget.
Also, lawmakers took steps to eliminate a projected deficit for the upcoming 2011-12 fiscal year, including making 4 percent rate cuts for providers. What’s more, they directed APD to present a plan by Sept. 1 to make sure the agency doesn’t go over budget — a requirement that is forcing it to look for about $84 million in additional cuts.
Vaughan said the agency will meet the budget requirements while trying to make sure it provides services needed throughout the state. He said he doesn’t favor across the board cuts.
“I’m not one for just taking a machete and saying, ‘We’re cutting 30 percent off everybody,’ ” Vaughan said.
Provider groups offered different — and sometimes conflicting — ideas for trimming costs during the hearing Thursday. But one common plea was for APD to reduce regulations that the groups contend drive up their costs.
“Something has to go, folks,” said Suzanne Sewell, president of the Florida Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.
Long term, APD is counting on concept known as “iBudget Florida” to help control costs. Broadly, the idea of the program is to set aside fixed amounts of money for disabled people and give them greater latitude in deciding how it should be best spent on services.
Melanie Mowry Etters, an APD spokeswoman, said the first phase of the iBudget program is expected to start in October and then be gradually expanded. APD has scheduled a meeting June 21 to discuss iBudgets.
APD serves 30,000 people in the home and community-based services waiver program. But the long-running financial problems have also left about 20,000 people on a waiting list for services, which spurred a class-action lawsuit against the state this spring.
Patricia Madden, a Central Florida attorney whose son has a developmental disability, expressed frustration Thursday with APD’s approach to the budget problems. She said officials are looking at money instead of the needs of disabled people, saying the “goal is backwards.”
By Jim Saunders
